Most solar systems are installed on a roof of a house or a building. The exception are solar farms or ground-mounted solar installations but these are rare, and usually 100% commercial solar systems. The reason most solar systems are installed on a roof is because of limited space – especially in the urban environment.

Roofs on the other hand represent significant unused space, and are usually not shaded by trees, nearby buildings, etc – they are the highest point of a building with great sun exposure, which makes them perfect to install solar panels on.

In this article we will discuss solar roofing systems, which integrate roofing materials with solar PV panels or solar thermal systems. Although most roof-mounted solar systems are installed on top of existing roof – be it an asphalt shingles roof or any type of flat roof – these solar systems are not integrated into the roofing material, and therefore are not solar roofs.

What is solar roofing? Roof-integrated solar systems explained.

Solar roofing is a final product which integrates a Solar Panel with the roofing material suitable for either sloped or flat roof. The solar panels used in solar roofing are usually thin-film photovoltaic laminates. Most popular Solar PV laminates commercially used today, are the Unisolar thin-film PV panels.

Unisolar thin-film PV laminates were originally designed to fit into and be integrated with standing seam metal roof panels. Unisolar panels are 15.5 inches wide and fit perfectly into a 16″ standing seam panels, and are attached or laminated with special butyl adhesive that is on the back of each Uni-solar PV panel.

As time progressed and solar integrators were having flat roof leak repair issues with solar systems they installed on flat commercial roofs. After they installed solar mounting racks and attached them to the roof deck, the fasteners would start leaking after a while. Roofing manufacturers answered this issue with different versions of flat roofing materials that integrated Unisolar PV panels – one such system is IB Solar Roof. There are many types of both solar metal roofs and solar flat roofs, using solar PV panels from various manufacturers (though as I said, most do use Unisolar PV laminates).

In this article we will discuss different types of solar roofing systems such as Solar Metal Roofing, Solar Flat Roofs, and Solar Shingles that get integrated with regular asphalt shingles roofs.

Solar Metal Roofing

Most common type of solar metal roofing is the standing seam metal roof with integrated Unisolar PV laminates. Unisolar PV laminates were initially designed to fit in the pan of standing seam panels, with the connection terminals concealed by the ridge cap. Because the connectors or terminals of these PV panels are not UV stable they need to be hidden from the sun, while the rest of the panel is of course exposed to the sun to generate solar electricity.

The benefits of standing seam solar metal roofing include fast installation, easy troubleshooting, lifetime leak free roof performance, and in US, you can get the 30% solar tax credit for the metal roof also, as it is a part of the solar system.

Solar Metal Shingles

Another type of solar metal roofing would be the solar metal shingles roofing. The concept is similar to solar standing seam roofing, but since metal shingles are much smaller, the solar PV laminates have to be adjusted to the size of the shingle. Also, all the terminals must be connected during the installation – if you miss just one, the circle will be broken ans the solar system will not work. Imagine finding the broken link when you have hundreds of not thousands of metal shingles to take of to find on broken connection.

Price-wise, I think that standing seam solar metal roofing is much more viable, as there is substantially less installation labor involved and much less potential troubleshooting, if something goes wrong. Imagine hiring a solar integrator and a professional metal roofer at $75-100 per hour – each – to find whats wrong with your solar metal shingles roof. Even if everything is peachy, the amount of time that will be used to install solar metal shingles is much more than that of solar standing seam roof. The total solar system price will be significantly higher just from all that extra labor.

Bottom line, the choice of solar metal roofing system that you decide to use will be more of a personal preference. Both will work great when professionally installed, and will last a very long time.

Solar Flat Roofing

Main reason for flat roofing materials manufacturers to begin developing solar flat roofing systems was to A) eliminate roof leaks associated with flat-roof solar installations, and B) sell more flat roofing materials, which is their main business after all.

Solar Flat Roofing is a great concept, but has some limitations. First, the angle on the solar panels is flat, so these solar panels will not catch as much sun light as tilted or sloped solar panels. Second, solar flat roofs will be much more effective in warm climates vs. colder northern climates such as New England, as in the winter, flat roofs are completely covered with snow and sunlight does not get through to the solar panels.

That said, the benefits of solar flat roofs far outweigh the drawbacks of solar flat roofs in colder climates. The solar PV panels that are integrated into the roofing membrane, eliminates 99% of roof penetrations, considerably reduces the wight of the solar system and the total solar system price. Not only the solar panels prices are lower for roof-integrated solar systems, you also eliminate the entire rack-mounting system (which costs about $1 per watt of your solar system) – and that is not small beans – you will save about 10-15% off your total solar system cost. Also since the roof solar system weighs much less than regular solar panels mounted on racks, you also eliminate substantial wight, and your building construction costs will be much lees, because you can reduce roof load requirements.

Solar Shingles

Solar shingles are very similar to solar metal shingles described above. The main difference is that they are designed to work with 3-tab or architectural asphalt shingles instead of a metal roofing shingles.

Although the solar shingles may seem as a great concept, please consider the following factor which make them not such a viable option when it comes to solar roofing. Solar Shingles are rather expensive… But all solar is expensive. Biggest problem with solar shingles in my opinion (roofer’s point of view that is) is following:

Solar shingles, just like metal solar shingles, take very long time to install, as each shingle must be connected to the rest of the solar system in series. However, unlike solar metal roofing shingles, there is no room to conceal the terminals under the shingle, so all connections must take place inside the attic space. Holes must be pre-drilled for each shingle, and terminals are fed inside the attic where they are connected.

This slows down the installation process significantly and usually you cannot finish this in one day. If it starts to rain, your roof is toast. There are too many penetrations under solar shingles, and it is very easy for water to get in. Of course there are ways to prevent roof from leaking even if it rains and roof is not finished. You can run the last row of shingles and overlap it with roof underlayment, which will prevent roof leak. Still this makes the total job that much more complicated and costly.

One more thing to consider is the fact that asphalt shingles only last about 15 years and will have to be replace down the road, where as a metal roof will last pretty much forever, or at least a lifetime of your house.

Conclusion: Pros and cons of solar roofing

As you can see, there are many options for solar roofs. Most are lifetime and and will work great. Some will last not so long (read asphalt roof shingles). In general the benefit of solar roofing is that you install it once and forget about it – there is no maintenance, no roof repair issues, no hassle.

On the other hand, solar roofing is more expensive as you are not only buying a new solar system, you are also getting a new roof, and in case of a metal roof, it is pretty expensive – certainly more expensive than asphalt shingles roofing. Even with 30% federal tax credit and some local solar rebates, it is a substantial investment up front. However in the long run it will pay for itself, with electricity generation and lack of roof and interior repairs.

Solar Roofing Resources

Solar System Guide – everything you need top know when designing a residential Solar PV system – positioning of your roof toward the sun, shading and angles of your solar panels, choosing the solar panels and inverter, etc.

Metal Roofing Materials – learn about different metal roof types and which metal is better to use – steel, aluminum, copper, zinc, etc., as well as learn more about metal roofing prices.

In April we installed a new lifetime Steel Metal Shingles roof on a house in Attleboro, Massachusetts. The house is located on a beautiful quiet street not far from Attleboro Center, as well as Mass / RI border. The new metal roof replace and old, failing asphalt shingles roof, with some shingle blown off by the wind.

The Metal Roof we installed was a Tamko Steel Shingles with real slate looks, in the beautiful Sequoya Red color. Steel metal shingles are an interlocking metal roof system, where each shingle is locked on all four sides and is held in place by clips and roofing nails and other six shingles around it.

Steel shingles metal roofs offer great flexibility in terms of installation, excellent water-tightness, and prevent Ice Dams formation as metal roofs shed Ice and Snow. On top of being an excellent solution to roof leaks and Ice Dams, metal roofs last in the range of 50 years or more!

Metal Roof installation.

The old roof was two layers of asphalt shingles, which by building code, must be removed before the new roof is installed. Removing the old roof is also beneficial in terms of removing extra weight off the house. Although metal roofs are VERY light, weighting 40 lbs per 100 sq. ft. in aluminum, and about 65 lbs. in steel shingles, they won’t add nearly as much weight as 1 layer of asphalt shingles (about 275 lbs per 100 sq. ft.), and can be safely installed as a second layer, it is a good idea to do a full tear off, to allow the repair of any rotten wood, and to improve roof ventilation.

Once the old roofing was tripped off the roof, we installed GAF Deck Armor breathable synthetic underlayment, and sealed all roof penetrations, such as chimney flashing, vent pipes, etc. GAF deck Armor is an excellent underlayment product that work like human skin – it allows the condensation to escape from the underside, while keeping the water from penetrating inside the house. Deck Armor can be installed without the metal roof on it for up to six month, and will keep the roof water-tight. After six month the UV radiation will begin to wear down the underlayment, but the roof will still hold of the water.

After tear-off was complete and underlayment installed, it was time to start installing the metal roof. First we installed all trim along roof edges. The trim was custom made with the vented bottom, to allow the soffit – ridge vent system to work properly. Since the house had no overhangs (soffits), the vented drip edge was the only way to allow adequate air intake into the attic space.

After the starter trim was installed we started installing the metal shingles, working our way from left to right, and up the roof slope. We also had to maintain the correct stagger pattern for vertical impressions in the steel shingles to maintain straight line and system integrity. We also had to work our way up the hip, so each next course of shingles shifted right by about a foot.

Flashing the chimney on a metal roof:

As we were installing new courses of shingles, we flashed all roof penetrations along the way. Pipe flashings are rather simple to install, and does not take a long time. The real time-consuming flashings, are those around the chimneys and skylights. The amount of preparation work and actual flashing time can be will over 5 hours per chimney or skylight. First the old flashing must be completely removed and the chimney must we wrapped with the underlayment, and be completely water-tight. It is also better to cut the channel for counter flashing before the underlayment is installed, as brick dust on the underlayment is difficult to clean off. Sometimes due to time constrains, this is difficult to do however.

Once chimney is properly wrapped with underlayment, you don’t have to worry about rains (it will not leak) and can install the metal roof at a comfortable pace. Once the shingles reach the chimney, we begin installing custom fabricated chimney flashings, starting with the bottom side of the chimney, we first install the head-wall flashing, that overlaps the course of shingles bellow. After the head-wall flashing, we install side-wall flashing that overlaps the head-wall flashing and channels all the water down, away from the chimney.

Once the bottom and side flashings are installed, we can continue running shingles past the chimney, all the way to the top of the roof. The chimney flashing is no longer holding us, as the back-pan flashing can be installed at any time now. We do however install the back pan flashing right away, so that w do not need to com back to it.

Once all the chimney flashings are installed, it is time for counter-flashing or “chimney-collar” which is an “L” shaped flashing inserted in the channels that we previously cut in the brick. Counter flashing will divert all water that is running down the chimney and prevent it from going behind chimney flashing. We once again start at the bottom, so that all counter flashing is overlapped in the right direction as to not let the water penetrate inside and behind the flashing. We pre-measure and cut / bend all four sides, and mark all bends, before the final installation. After we know everything fits, we remove all flashing, insert a thick bead of Solar Seal 900 caulking / adhesive into the channels in the brick, and then insert the counter-flashings, starting at the bottom.

Chimney and skylight flashing are among the most common leak spots on any roof, along with valleys. Improper flashing around the chimney is what causes most leaks, and this is especially true for the metal roofing. Installing shingles on a straight run roof is easy, and it’s almost impossible for such roof to leak, even if the roofing installed never installed the metal roof before.

Proper detail flashing such as the chimney above, is what determines whether the roof will leak or not, and inexperience metal roof installer will not be able to properly flash the chimney. That is why most roofing contractors do not install metal roofs – after one VERY expensive roof failure, they give up. But you as a home owner should always make sure that your metal roofing contractor knows what he’s doing. Otherwise you will have very sorry experience with your metal roof. It is a fact that almost 99%
of metal roof failures and leaks, are caused by improper installation – not the material failure.

After flashing two chimneys, we finished installing shingles on all four sides of this hip roof. Now the roof needed to be finished off with Ridge Vent and Ridge / Hip Caps. We marked a straight line using a chalk line tool, so that the hip caps would lay in a straight line and look beautiful from the ground. We started installing ridge caps from bottom up, and finished it when the reached the ridge line. Then we installed the ridge caps and main roof was complete. Now it was time to install the metal roof on the additions bellow as well as on the shed and a garage.

Installing metal roof on addition, a shed and a garage:

With the main roof out of the way, we could tear of the shingles on the addition bellow it, without worrying that debris will fall on new metal roof. We also removed the vinyl siding along the roof to wall connection so that we could install the underlayment and metal roof side wall flashing. Once the underlayment, drip edge and side-wall flashing was installed, we started putting up shingle and ridge / hip caps – basically repeating the upper roof installation, on a smaller scale.

We also installed metal shingles on another bump-out in the back of the house, a awning in front and a bay window, as well as shed and garage in the back.

Now this house in Attleboro, MA with the new lifetime metal roof looks amazing and the roof will not only protect the home from leaks and ice dams, but will also reduce the energy use during hot summer months, because it is a Cool Roof and qualifies for $1500 federal tax credit for cool roofs!

Check out other metal roof installations that we installed recently – check out our Massachusetts roofing projects. Also check out our metal roofing prices guide to learn how much a metal roof will cost, and compare metal roof prices for different materials – aluminum, steel and copper, as well as different metal roofing systems – metal roof shingles, standing seam roofs and tiles / shakes. We also recommend that you check out what type of metal roofing materials we install in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

Metal roofing is an excellent choice for quality-minded homeowners, as metal roof is virtually the only lifetime roof system that light weight, long-lasting, and most of all – affordable. If you compare prices of metal roof to slate or clay tile prices, you will realize that an average metal roof will cost you only about one third the price of natural slate, while it will look the same or better and last at least as long.

There are many styles of metal roofs and many choices for roofing material – your choices range from galvanized steel / aluminum metal roofs, to premium metals such as zinc, copper and stainless steel roofing. You can choose between a “standard” vertical panel (standing seam) metal roof, or a metal roof made to look as either cedar shingles, shakes, natural slate or flat and barrel tile.

You will also get a wide range of colors to choose from. The result will be such that you will get the look you want with the price you can afford, and the long-lasting performance of metal roofing.

Metal roofing – premium roofing material at down to earth prices:

There is much confusion about the prices of metal roofs, as there is a wide range of metal roof styles and materials to choose form and some will cost a lot more than other. In this metal roofing prices guide, we will show you how much you should expect to pay for different metal roofing systems, and how the choice of metal roofing materials will affect your roofing cost. But before we jump into roof pricing for each type of metal roof, let me clarify one thing: metal roofs are pricey as compared to asphalt shingles roof, but keep in mind that metal roof is a lifetime roofing material and so should be compared to its counter-parts in the roofing market – other lifetime roofs, such as natural slate, clay Spanish tiles, concrete tiles, and lately, synthetic slate roofing.

Asphalt shingles on the other hand are not a lifetime roofing materials and you can expect to replace an average asphalt shingle roof every 15 years. Even the “50 years” or “lifetime” asphalt shingles won’t last more than 25-30 years as they will simply dry out / roast under sun’s heat and ultraviolet rays.





Also we want to mention that metal roofs cost just as much as a cedar shingles roof, but they will outlast cedar shingle by at least 3 times on average, as cedar shingles rarely last longer than 20 years, due to moisture, mold, mildew and moss growth, etc. Also you can get a metal roof that looks just like a cedar shingles roof, at almost the same price.

Benefits of metal roofing:

• Metal roof is a lifetime roofing material, and you can expect an new metal roof to easily outlast your house (when installed correctly). Even the galvanized steel metal roof, which is usually warranted for 50 years, will usually last well beyond its warranty period, unless it is subject to corrosion due to external sources/causes, such as salt-air environment or mixing of different, incompatible metals, such as copper, aluminum or zinc.
• Main benefit of metal roof is that it is made out of the most durable roofing materials available, and metal does not deteriorate with ages, unlike asphalt shingles. Sun’s UV rays have no effect on metal roof performance, with the exception for the paint fading, which happens rather slow and gradually, and goes virtually unnoticed, for metal roofs coated with Kynar 500 / Hylar 5000 coating.
• Metal roofs are light weight, and do not require any special framing to support the wight of a roof systems. Average metal roof weights 50-80 lbs. per 100 square feet, or one roofing square, compared to 250 lbs for asphalt shingles and as much as 800 lbs for slate or tile roofs. Due to low weight of a metal roof, they can easily be installed over  existing shingles, which will further reduce your roof installation price. However there are some exceptions, which we will discuss bellow.
• Metal roofs are Cool Roofs by nature, as they do not store solar heat, and unlike asphalt shingles, quickly cool down as soon as sun goes down. When coated with “Cool Roof” coating, metal roofs will qualify for a $1500 cool roof federal tax credit.
• Metal roofs shed ice and water and are a natural solution for ice dams problems and related roof leaks. Although Ice Dams are more than just a “roof problem”, nearly every asphalt shingles roof will be subjected to ice dams, no matter how well it is ventilated and insulated. Metal roofs prevent ice build up, as any snow and ware will slide off a metal roof. Even when ice build up occurs on a metal roof, continuous vertical panels and interlocking metal shingles design will not let the water back up under the roof and leak inside your house.

Metal Roofing Prices:

Although roof prices differ from region to region, metal roofing prices are more stable and even, compared to cost of asphalt shingle roofs. We will look at metal roof prices based on metal roof type and material. Metal roof prices described bellow, are the going average in Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island, but there should not be much difference in metal roof cost, where you live, unless the economic situation in your region is very dire. Usually roof prices have direct co-relationship to the cost of living in your area and metal roofs are not exception.

Before we dive into metal roofing prices, lets establish a reference point for which roof prices are given: Our model roof will be a 1500 sq. feet gable roof with one chimney, a ridge and two roof “planes”, as well as 3 bathroom vent pipes. There are also two skylights on the roof and about 50 feet of roof to wall flashing (side-wall flashing). Our “model” roof has a plywood deck with no shingles or any other roofing materials on it and all wood is in sound shape. We will install 3 feet wide Ice and Water Shield along the eaves of our roof and GAF DeckArmor underlayment on the rest of the roof. We also will install 5 snow-guards over each door used in the winter, and over garage doors, and a ridge vent along the ridge.

So here is a basic rundown on roof specs:

• Roof slop – walkable – 3 to 6 roof pitch.
• No tear-off.
• Roof installation to include Ice and Water shield along the eaves / valleys, and GAF DeckArmor over the rest of the roof.
• Roof installation includes Ridge vent cut in and installation.
• Roof installation includes new, color-matching chimney flashing and counter flashing.
• Skylight flashing and chimney flashing for more than one chimney is usually extra, and is not included in the following per-square roof pricing.
• Snow guards are normally installed only over doors which you use in the winter – typically 5 or 7 snow-guards per door. Any additional snow-guards are charge for at about $15 per snow-guard.
• When roof difficulty goes up, the price-per-square goes up. So a roof with many valleys, dormers, side-wall flashing, etc., will cost more, than a simple roof in the picture bellow.

We will list the metal roofing prices for different metal roof materials in the order of low to high price. Also notice that there is a difference in price of steel roof vs. aluminum roof, with aluminum being about a $100 more per square, compared to G90 or Galvalume steel.

Steel shingles metal roof prices:

Steel interlocking shingles is the least expensive architectural metal roof system, though id does not mean that it is “the worst quality”. In fact, steel shingles, such as those demonstrated above, are a very high quality metal roofing system, but cost the least as they are the least expensive metal roof material for us to purchase and a metal roof shingles are the “easiest to install”.

On average, one square of steel shingles will cost you about $800 to install on a simple roof such as the one described above, excluding any tear-off, and other extras such as multiple chimneys/skylights flashing, gutters, leaf-guards, etc. This price includes any one of the three available profiles: Slate, Wood Shingle and Tile.

Aluminum shingles metal roof prices:

Similar to prices of steel interlocking shingles, aluminum shingles will cost $900 per square, which includes the difference in material prices. All other items remaining the same. Aluminum shingles installation is virtually the same as steel shingles, with the exception of using aluminum ring-shank nails and usually not using clips, as aluminum shingles are smaller (1 sq. ft. each) and have a built in attachment “ear”.

Standing seam metal roofing prices:

Standing seam metal roof material costs more to install, and is usually more difficult / time consuming to install if there are any roof penetrations such as sky-lights or chimneys, as the flashing method for roof curbs on standing seam metal roofs is very complicated due to roof design. Additionally, the roofing material prices for standing seam are considerably higher, as the metal gauge is higher compared to metal shingles in both steel and aluminum.





A simple roof with standing seam metal panels will cost about $1000 per square for steel metal roof. As soon as difficulty of a roof goes up, the installation process becomes much more complicated as compared to metal shingles, and the price difference per square  becomes higher than is the case with metal shingles. This is due in part to the lack of a method to install roof staging on a standing seam metal roof, and a need to use the hydraulic lift on most hip roofs, as there is no way to attach a hook ladder on a hip roof.

Aluminum standing seam metal roof will usually cost about $1100 per square to account for material price difference. Also, the snow-guards choices for standing seam roofs offer great range for styles, but also increase the overall cost.

Exposed fasteners (EF) metal roofing – Multi-rib / R-panel / V5 crimp panel / corrugated metal roof prices:

Unlike the architectural metal roofing such as standing seam, exposed fasteners metal roofs cost considerably less, but are also of a much lower material quality and are limited in terms of installation / flashing methods for complicated roofs. EF metal roofs are designed to be a cheap metal roof for farm / industrial / commercial buildings, and are rarely used in residential metal roofing. This type of metal roofing is usually made with a cheap 29 ga steel and acrylic paint / coating, instead of a minimum 26 ga steel and Kynar 500 paint for architectural standing seam. Also the limited flashing method, makes this type of metal roofing a bad choice for complicated roofs. Exposed fasteners also pose a great possibility of a roof leak and will normally require re-sealing and re-tightening in about 10 years, as neoprene rubber gasket dries out and water begins to sip in.

Price of an EF metal roof averages between $600-650 per square. The difference in roof price is due in part to considerably lower quality and cost of roofing material as well as faster, simpler installation.

Specialty metal roofing products – stone coated steel, copper and zinc metal roofs:

Stone coated steel is one example of specialty metal roofing. Although it is pretty common in the south and med-west, it is rather rare in New England, and due to high material costs ad complicated installation, stone coated steel metal roofing is only installed when a specific style of a light metal roof is required. Most common style if stone coated steel roofs is the Spanish tile impressions.

Stone coated steel roofing is usually made form a 24 or 22 gauge, G90 galvanized steel, and is coated with tiny stone granules painted in typical colors of of clay tile roofs installed throughout Southern Europe, with dominating red and orange shades.

Stone coated steel roofs are usually installed over horizontal battens, and installation goes from top to bottom instead of typical bottom-up installation process.

Stone coated steel roofs usually cost about $1300+ per square, including installation of 2×2″ battens, and underlayment. All roof penetration flashing is rather complicated due to design limitations of stone coated steel metal roofs and hence will cost even more than curb flashings for standing seam roofs.

Despite higher than usual roof prices, stone coated steel roofs offer a beautiful look of a Spanish tile roof, at a fraction of the total cost of the real clay tiles, while the roof quality is at lease the same if not better. The relatively light weight of stone coated steel roofs eliminates the need for special framing required to support the weight of real clay tiles.

Spanish tile stone coated metal roof which we installed at Venus De Milo restaurant in Swansea, MA

Copper roofing prices

Copper is rarely installed over entire roof due to extremely high material prices. Copper is usually used for smaller, custom roofs, such as decorative bay-window roofs, curved metal roofs, etc. However if you want to have a copper roof installed over your entire house, the most cost-effective copper roof would be to use copper interlocking metal shingles, which have the same design as aluminum shingles, and are once again, the easiest type of copper roof to install and cost less than copper standing seam.





Since copper is a pretty soft metal, is can be molded and formed to look like almost any type of roof. Copper looks particularly “awesome” when it’s made to look like Spanish tile, especially when the natural green patina occurs on it due to normal oxidation. The Spanish tile copper roofing is by far the most expensive copper roof, when you price it for the whole house. Of course it will still be less expensive per square foot, compared to custom copper roofing.





Copper roof prices:

The least expensive copper roof shingles will cost you about $2000 per square. This number is not very firm though as copper prices are very volatile and have risen dramatically in the recent months (since Jan. 2010). This price includes all flashing made from 16 oz. copper as well as copper shingles which are also made from 16 oz. copper. You also have a choice of 20 oz. copper, but that will bump up your copper roofing cost another $100 per square.

Copper Spanish tile will cost you about $2750 per square, as it is made from 20 oz. copper by default, costs considerably more than copper shingles and the installation of copper Spanish tile roof is also much more complicated.

Any custom copper work will be priced on per job basis as there is really no way to provide standard pricing for custom copper roof work. However, a typical straight panel copper way window will cost you between $2500 and $3000. Any curved copper roof installation will increase the roof price dramatically.

Zinc Roof prices:

Zinc roofing costs virtually the same as copper, though in some cases it is actually less expensive. Zinc roof is usually installed as standing seam, though, custom zinc roofing shingles can be ordered and manufactured as a special order. In general, you can expect to pay $1800-1900 per sq. for zinc roofing on roof sizes over 500 sq. feet.

Metal Roofing Resources:

Use our Roofing Calculator to estimate metal roof prices in Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island, as well as get free roofing price quote, when you submit a roofing estimate request.

Solar Metal Roofing – Did you know that standing seam metal roof can be combined with a thin-film solar panels such as PV laminates made by UniSolar? Solar metal roofing is the most cost effective way to combine green metal roofing materials with Solar Panels, and get the best price for both!

You can use the Solar Calculator to estimate solar roofing prices based on the roofs size as well as the size of the solar system you are looking to install. Solar calculator will also help you estimate the break-even period and the solar electricity production of your solar PV panels.

References

Metal Roofing prices – a helpful guide to understanding metal roofing prices for materials and labor.

Roofing Costs – related guide to understand roofing prices for common roof types.

Last week, Boston was a host to hordes of roofing sales people, roof manufacturers’ reps and local roofing contractor from all aver Massachusetts and New England. It was the NERCA (North East Roofing Contractors Association) annual roofing convention, where most roofing materials, tools and equipment manufacturers were present, promoting their new products and services.

After being to a few of these shows already, the don’t get any more exciting, but it’s always nice that NERCA sets up up open bars with semi-decent wine, and cheese / crackers / fresh veggies & berries tables. I think for roof sales professionals, these roofing conventions have become a boring necessity as all they do is schmooze with each other and talk about competition. As for me and other roofing contractors, we can always find some new and exciting roofing materials and roofing tools, equipment and services, such as infra-red roof scanners, roof lifts, hydraulic-powered dumpster which can be lifted to the roof level to speed up roof tear-oof and clean up process.
As an Flat Roofs contractor we were there supporting IB Roofs which had a booth there, and I got to meet IB’s new Regional Manager Dana Spurgeon, as well as IB’s local reps in Massachusetts – Jerry Lang and Kevin Laprte (whom I already know of course).

Roofing Equipment presented at Boston Roofing Show:

Besides the obvious and now ritualistic visit to the IB Roofs stand, I wanted to find as many cool, interesting and innovative roofing products at this show, and quickly wondered off, to explore the unknown. My first find was an excellent new automatic hot-air welder by Leister – the new Varimat V2.

This new auto welder, unlike the original Varimat V, has increased and elongated nozzle, and much more powerful fan built into its heat gun, which allows siginificant increas in welding speed from 15 feet per minute for the Varimat V to a maximum 39 feet per minute and realistic 30 feet per minute for the new Varimat V2!

The new Varimat also has new computer controller which lets you save your setting into profiles of various welding speeds and temperature, which can be used for winter and summer roof installation and different roofing membranes, such as TPO roofs and IB single-ply PVC roofing. This new Leister automatic welder is the most advanced tool in its class, and can dramatically speed up roof installation time on large commercial roofing projects. However it comes at a premium price-tag of about $8000 before taxes, requires a more powerful, 6800 watts generator, and of course heavy gauge 240V extension cords, which can easily make the total price for this unit to be over $11000-12000.

Another interesting piece of equipment I found is the hydraulic-powered dumpster lift, which can be driven right up to the roof line and will let roofing contractor to dump old shingles or other roofing materials right off the roof, eliminating clean up, using tarps to cover the exterior walls of the hows and the grass, as well as roofing nails all over your yard, at the end of the day.

Another really interesting piece of roofing equipment is the automatic plates and fastener driver from OMG Roofing. Last year, at the roofing show held at Foxwoods in Connecticut, OMG Roofing demonstrated such unit for flat insulation plates, but did not have one that would quickly fasten the barbed plates used to hold down single ply roofing membranes.

Bellow you can see a video of this plates and fasteners driver in action, attaching a piece of PVC roofing membrane to an ISO insulation over wooden deck roof assembly: Once again, this unit uses barbed plates that are 2 3/8″ in diameter and are made to mechanically attach single ply roofing systems to the roof deck.

Solar Roofing products presented at Boston roofing convention:

Soprema Roofing also had a pretty nice stand where they displayed new Modified Bitumen roofing systems with cool roof reflective layer on the top and SopraSolar roof integrated solar systems. This solar systems, just like the IB’s Solar Wise solar roofing system, uses the UniSolar thing film Solar PV panels, adhered to the roofing membrane.

This new SopraSolar system is a much cleaner installation than Soprema’s original roof-integrated solar systems. The roof integrated solar PV systems are more expensive than regular solar systems, but they offer completely water-tight installation of the roof and solar panels and virtually eliminate roof leaks – calculate solar system cost using Solar Calculator – a free tool that allows you to estimate solar system size, number of kW and how many solar panels you will need as well as solar payback period.

Solar Roofing Tiles:

One more cool roofing product, also using UniSolar thin-film solar panels, which is made in Pennsylvania, is a Spanish roofing tile product, made to easily be installed with clay tiles and provide roof integrated solr panes without any roof penetration or solar mounting racks:

Other interesting roofing materials and products:

Soprema also had a demonstration stand showcasing its PVC roofing systems coated with natural copper, which would actually turn green and the patina process begins. This PVC roof systems also comes with PVC made ribs, so the complete roof system imitates Copper Standing Seam metal roof at a fraction of the cost.

Another interesting product, this time for the sloped roof is a roof vent, which can be installed along th roof eaves, when your roof does not have soffit vents, and improve ventilation of your roof, which will increase the time that your roof will last, make your roof deck last longer and help prevent Ice Dams on your roof.

Ultimate car for the roofing industry:

There was also a rather unconventional vendor present at this year’s roofing convention, who designed a vehicle specially for the roofing sales professionals. This new hybrid concept car features high gas mileage, wide wheel base and extra cargo space for all your roofing samples, brochures and equipment. Unfortunately there is no roof rack on this car, so you won’t be able to take a normal ladder with you, but you can always use a folding telescopic ladder, or as most roofing sales people do – measure the roof off the ground

This new hybrid car is rumored to be a replacement for Toyota Prius, which recently has had a lot of problems with it’s brakes systems and sudden acceleration. This new “bucket” car is supposed to eliminate most problems of a Prius and provide many additional benefits, together with great gas mileage.

Term “green” has become very popular during last decade and consequently overused, misused and abused. Anything and everything can be called green today, and to make money and to attract environmentally-conscious customers, people will call themselves and their products green, even when it is just a blatant lie to confuse uneducated consumers. Being a roofing contractor, I will concentrate on roofing products and services. For example, many asphalt shingles manufacturers now offer “cool” and “green”  shingle products – to me it’s just a shameless tactics to sell same NOT-green crap  that is painted different color (usually some shade of white). Excuse me, but asphalts shingles are not green, period! The are made with asphalt, can’t be recycled and end up in landfills in 10-15 years.

Since term green is very vague and can be interpreted in many ways, I’ll offer my vision of “green” – green roofing contractor to be exact, which describes the way I think and try to operate our roofing business. I want to mention that when I say “green roofing contractor”, it has nothing to do with with a roofing contractor installing green roofs or roof-top gardens. To me a contractor installing roof-top vegetation is a highly-specialize landscaping company, but not a roofing contractor (unless they also install the actual flat roofing membrane to waterproof the building).


Quick navigation in this article:
What is a “green” roofing contractor and how one is different from regular roofing companies.
Learn about green benefits of Metal Roofing and IB Flat Roof

What is a “green” roofing contractor?

In my mind a green roofing contractor is a company that work hard to help protect environment and reduce its energy consumption and green-house gas production or carbon footprint. Sure, almost any company will have a carbon-footprint as it’s nearly impossible to be carbon-neutral, but here are many ways to achieve a much lower carbon footprint.

Here are some thing we do to make our overall operation as green as we can, all-the-while saving you, our customers, money on roof installation services, by cutting our internal costs:

First of all, we install cool roofing products, such as IB Cool Flat roofs and Metal roofing systems (usually made from about 90% recycled metal).We also try to do this in the most efficient manner possible to reduce waste, conserve resources and reduce our clients’ energy use for cooling of their home or place of business, as a result if installing our cool roofs.

What makes us a green roofing company?

Besides installing  cool and green roofing products, we strive to be green in operating our business. When it comes to estimating a roof, most roofing contractors will go to numerous roofing estimates, many of which they will not sell. Keep in mind that many home owners get as many as 5-10 estimates before they make up their mind and some roofers need to make two trips if they forgot to measure something.

We work differently: to save our time and most importantly, the energy (gasoline) it takes to drive around to hundreds, and the associated pollution, we created a system of making our estimating process as efficient as possible. This benefits everyone, and you – our customers in the first place.

Here is how our “green” roofing estimate process works:

1. When client you (homeowner or small business), contact us by email or on the phone, we collect as much information about your roof as possible. The information which we collect includes:




• Type of your roof including all roof penetrations and other specific details.
• Dimensions of your home.
• Photographs of your house and/or roof. (If pictures are unavailable for some reason, we will use Google Maps’ “street view” and Bing Maps’ “birds view” to get an idea of what your roof is like)
• Number of layers of the existing roofing materials.
• Roof age.
• Whether your roof leaks or not.
• When you plan to replace the roof.
• Any other roof related information, as well as answer as many of your questions as we can.
2. Based on the information we get from you, we assess your roof’s condition, estimate approximate cost of replacement, as well as suggest the most cost-effective solution for you, as well as address ventilation, insulation, ponding water, drainage and other roof-related issues.
3. Once we complete our analysis, we provide you with a “preliminary roofing price quote” which in our experience is about 95% accurate and may/will usually change if A) roof dimensions were provided incorrectly or B) there are more roofing layers that we were informed of and C) any other unforeseen situations, which actually rarely happen (One such situation happened when we were replacing a rubber roof in Boston, MA – there we removed old parapet cap, and found that 4 layers of brick parapet wall were sitting in completely washed out mortar. Therefore we had to rebuild the parapet wall completely, so that we could actually complete the roof installation properly).
4. Once you get our roofing price quote, you decide whether it is within your budget, and whether you want to proceed with the roof replacement and work with us. At this point many customers will ask us about our references, which we will email to you.
5. If you like our products / company / price, and want to proceed, we schedule a mutually convenient time for a Roof Inspection / Estimate, during which we actually measure your roof to make sure our quote was correct, check how many layers your roof has, make sure there will be now unforeseen situations. We also show you the product, and how it works as well as answer any questions you may have. Once we are done inspecting your roof, we give you the final roof price, which may or may not include any extra work, such as new gutters installation  or something else. Besides the extra work, our final price is 95% of the time, the same as the preliminary price quote.

What is so special about the way we estimate roofs?

The process I’ve described above, eliminates 70% of unnecessary “driving-around”, which not only helps the environment, but also saves you – our customers money! Since most roofing contractors provide seemingly “free roof estimates”, while still spending time on gas / expenses, and using their time to drive around estimating roofs, the customers that actually do sign up to work with such contractors, end up paying for all previously unsold roofing estimates. We do it differently – we give you all the information we can, including our pricing, so there are no surprises. When you have this info, you can decide if you want to work with us. To avoid charging our customers for someone-else’ unsold estimate, we implemented a $99 estimate fee, which is included in the price of the roof if you decide to work with us (it is not an extra charge). This way you only “pay” for your own estimate, and only if after the estimate you decided that for some reason you do not want to work with us. If we sign a contract – you do not pay the $99 fee. Bottom line – you, our customers don’t pay for other people who “wasted” our time, as is the case with most other roofing contractors.

When we actually go on the estimate, we also as if you have an appropriate ladder at your house, so we could access your roof. If you do not have appropriate ladder or roof access, we will bring a truck with all needed ladders. But if you do have a ladder we’d rather take a “car” instead of the truck. This may sound “cheesy” of us, but here is why we do it:

To be more green, we purchased a Toyota Prius – arguably the greenest and most fuel efficient  production car in US. The sole purpose of getting it was so that we can use it for estimating roofs. Its roomy enough to hold all the needed samples and small hand tools (such as the Hand welder for IB Roof seam welding demonstration), and can also hold additional materials for when your roof needs urgent repair work, which we can perform after the roof inspection / estimate.

Toyota Prius – Green Roofing Contractor’s estimating vehicle.

We would rather take the Prius to an estimate because we usually have to drive long distances, as our roofing jobs take place all over southern New England – we install roofs in Massachusetts, and as far west as NY borders of Western Mass. and Connecticut. Prius will save a lot of gas when we have to drive this far, and as a result a lot of pollution. And no, we do not do it to merely save a couple of bucks on gas – it will take us about 300,000 miles to break even at current gas prices ($2.59 / gallon of unleaded gas here in Massachusetts), if we compare cost of new Prius vs. new Corolla / Civic.

In the end, the way we perform our roofing estimates, benefits you (financially, as we do not need to up-charge you for costs of doing “free estimates”), us – also financially and time-wise, and the environment. This shows just one of the ways we are trying to be the “greener” roofing contractor.

Another way which makes us a greener roofing contractor is our product line of Cool Roofing products which last a VERY long time without leaks and are mostly recyclable and are often made from recycled materials. These products include IB Cool Flat Roofing membrane for flat roofs, Recycled (or new) Roofing Insulation, and different types of metal roofing materials, which often consist of more than 50% of recycled metals.

In some cases we will also recommend that you do not tear off your existing roof (this only applies to 1 layer of existing roofing materials), which will reduce land-fill waste and your costs of roof  removal and disposal. Look forward to our future article on when you should and should not tear off your old roof.

Green benefits of Cool Flat Roofing products – IB Roofs:

IB roofs’ cool white surface reflects up-to 95% of solar heat, and dramatically reduce cooling costs in the summer, and with additional thermal insulation, winter heating costs are also reduced by as much as 25-30%.

IB PVC roofing is long-lasting – you can expect your IB roof to last 30+ years without any repairs (unless there is a physical damage) while average flat roof, such as EPDM Rubber roof or tar and gravel roof, lasts 10-15 years.  Long on-the-roof service life means that you would replace your non-IB roof at least once or twice before IB roof even begins to leak. Beside enormous, non biodegradable or recyclable waste going to landfills, there is also huge amount of energy involved in installation of a new roof:

From roofing crews, each driving their F-250 or Dodge Ram to work each day, to heavy equipment delivering materials to job-site and diesel-hungry dumpster trucks going back and forth from job site to landfill, hauling the waste roofing materials.

IB Roofs are thinner and lighter than any asphalt-based product, and each roll of IB 50-mil membrane has 500 sq. ft. coverage. Therefore, for an average residential flat roof installation  we need only one trip of a fully loaded work truck or van to bring all materials, tools and 3 roofers to a job site. And we don’t need to bring a crane or haul a tar kettle around.

If you have an new hot tar or asphalt roof put on, also think about all the energy going to heat up that tar or asphalt to the point of boiling. For a torch-down modified bitumen roof, think of all the propane gas being burned to melt each square foot of that roof.

Simply by switching to cool flat roof products, a roofing contractor can in time, reduce their carbon footprint by almost 50%, increase profits, production, have happier and healthier employees (just imagine breathing in tar dust or hot asphalt fumes each day), and help protect the environment overall.

Installation video of Cool, White IB roof – hot air welding:

Green benefits of Metal Roofing:

Metal roofing is the longest lasting roofing material for sloped roofs. Some copper roofs in Europe have lasted more than 5 centuries. Metal roofs are readily made with more than 50% of recycled metals content, and will outlast ANY asphalt shingles roof by at least 3 time (when installed properly), and often will last well beyond its warranty periods.This will significantly reduce the asphalt shingles waste that goes to the landfills every 10 to 15 years, when your roof starts to leak and needs to be replaced.

Metal roofs like IB flat roofs are Cool, Energy Star compliant roofs, and will reflect significant amount of solar heat, as well as minimize heat transfer into your house. Reflectivity of metal roofs depends on the color (lighter colors will be more reflective) and the paint or coating used in manufacturing of a given metal roofing systems. The de-facto coating used in metal roofing is Kynar 500 paint and any of its variations / modifications by third-party manufacturers. These paints have in them cool roof reflective pigments, and will usually qualify of $1500 federal tax credit for energy efficient home improvements.

If your metal roof was installed incorrectly or is way past its warranty period and starts to rust / leak (only steel roofs can rust, as other metals used in metal roofing are usually rust-proof, except for corrosion caused by mixing of different metals, such as copper and aluminum). This old metal roofing materials can be recycled, and there and numerous metal recycling facilities around, where contractors bring old metals.

When we replaced old metal  roofs on IHOP restaurants (which were in part incorrectly installed over 35 years ago) in Hyannis, MA and Brighton, MA, we recycled every single piece of each of those roofs, including clips and nails used to hold them down. For more information, read or article on pros and cons of metal roofing.

Installation video of Standing Seam Cool Metal Roof:

Why hire green roofing contractors?

Basically, when you are dealing with a green roofing company, you can usually expect to work with caring and responsible people, who charge a little extra for their products and services, but will give you a lot more than your neighborhood roofer from yellow pages. It is almost a given that level of workmanship and quality of roofing products will be above and beyond than most roofing contractors. And of course the green roofing contractors will use earth-friendly products and will run their operations in a green way, which will benefit the environment. You don’t have to believe in global worming to agree that using green products and conserving energy / resources is a good thing.

If you live or own a business in Massachusetts, Connecticut or Rhode Island and need a new roof – let us know and we will give you some of the best deals around. Fill out our roof estimate form and we will help you get a “greener roof” and we promise to be gentle with mother earth!

You may use our roofing calculator to estimate the cost of your roof replacement, find out your potential energy savings (in dollars) and compare the prices of IB Roof to “not cool” EPDM rubber and Modified Bitumen (torch-down) roofs.

So is your roofing contractor green?

Massachusetts is our home state and here is where we install majority of our roofs (with Connecticut being in second place). In Massachusetts, roofing market is very different, depending on location, and although there are a lot more sloped roofs, not only in Mass., but in the rest of the country, we still install more Flat roofs than Metal roofs. As for geographic location of your home in Massachusetts, up north, toward the New Hampshire border, roofs are more prone to Ice Dam roof leaks and damages than houses located in the southern MA.

Although Massachusetts is not a very big state, the your location can have a dramatic effect on the amount of snow fall in the winter, and thus your chances of having Ice dams and and related roof leaks. For example on the same day, an average roof in Sharon or Norwood will have 1-2 inches of ice alone the eaves, whereas an average roof in Lowell will have 5+ inches of ice build-up. If you go further north of south away from Boston the amount of annual snow accumulation and ice dams will increase or decrease respectively.

Why do I mention Ice dams and roof leaks in the intorductory part? It’s simple – most commercial roofs are flat, and are not prone to ice dams, though they have their own list of problems that I will discuss bellow. Residential roofs on the other hand are the ones mostly affected by ice dams. These are both sloped roofs and low-slope / flat roof, and we have the best and longest lasting solutions for both - Metal Roofing for sloped roofs and IB Roof for low slope flat roofs, such as shed dormer roofs, and completely flat roofs.

Bellow we will give you a quick overview of most recent and some older roof installations that we’ve completed in Mass. Keep in mind that these are not the complete job profiles. Complete job overviews will be posted separately, as time permits us to write them. In the overviews bellow I will provide basic information about each roof, accompanied by a few pictures and short description of roof installation process and challenges we had to face.

Before we go into job reviews, here are a few additional articles you may find useful, when choosing a roof product for your home and a roofing contractor to install it:

How to prevent Ice Dams – comprehensive guide on which focuses on the root cause of Ice dams which is usually a combination of poor ventilation and and inadequate insulation in the attic space or between roof rafters. This guide will help homeowners minimize heat leaks in the attic, improve ventilation and eliminate the effects of ice dam leaks by installing a Metal Roof or an IB low-slope roofing membrane.

Low-slope roofs – Overview of common problems associated with low slope residential roof such as shed dormers or roof on most cape-style homes located in the norther MA. Common issues with such roofs include rotten roof decking / rafters and Ice-dams. Since this roofs are prone to Ice dam leaks, most of the rot damage is an effect of ice dams and although many roofing contractors will insist that using Ice and Water shield will do the trick, our experience shows that most of the time I&W fails to protect the roof even if entire roof deck is covered in Ice and Water. Therefore we believe that best solution for permanent protection of low-slope roofs and eliminating ice dams is the use of metal roof of IB flat roofing membrane in conjunction with solving ventilation/insulation issues described in the article above.

Roofs we installed in Massachusetts:

Low slope shed dormer roof in Westminster, MA

This roof we installed in early May of 2009. The house is located in heavily wooded are of central Mass, just north of mount Wachusett. Westminster, MA is located along Rt. 2, and not very far from New Hampshire border. These areas get major snow falls in the winter, together with colder temperatures than those in Boston and ice dams are a major problem in Westminster, even for high slope roofs. Low slope roofs such as the one we replaced there, are very likely to have ice dam leaks and other problems such as rotten roof deck, wet insulation, and mold.

The roof has been leaking for some time around the chimney in the center of the roof and was patched many times with tar, but rather unsuccessfully. Also, due to Ice Dams and roof leaks caused by ice formation along the roof eaves, the home owner installed heating cables to stop the Ice dam leaks. These however did not help either and after one more unsuccessful roof repair, home owner decided to get an IB roof installed.

The home owner and their cousin who is a roofer in NH, did the roof tear-off and replaced all rotten plywood decking, to reduce the cost of roof installation, while we installed the roof itself, insulation, chimney flashing, ridge vent and snow guards (snow retention system).

Note – even though before we installed IB roof, home owner’s main concern was to get ice and snow off the roof. After IB roof was installed, our concern was that due to roof’s pitch, which was about 3 in 12″, the snow and Ice would just slide off the roof in a large pile, crushing down onto deck and perch bellow it. Also there was a grill on the deck which was not movable since it was tied to a gas line.

The chimney flashing, which may seem to take not to much time, actually took about 6-7 hours to properly flash. The reason ot turned out to be so lime consuming it that it is located in the center and separates the ridge vent as well as creeping onto another side of the roof. Due to its position, size and the way IB roof is installed it not only took long to work around, but also slowed down the rest of roof installation. Because the the ridge vent buts into the chimney, we had to make sure that not only ridge vent is raised an inch off the roof level to prevent the wind-driven rain from leaking into the house, but also that it is completely tied to the roof, and flashed up the chimney. Once the chimney flashing was installed and counter flashing reglet had to bi installed as well.

All in all it took us 3 days to install this roof, though 3rd day was rather short. What really slowed us down, was the first heat wave of that spring and unrealistic number of bugs / flies / mosquitoes in this wooded / swampy area of central Mass.

Roofing membrane used: 50 mil mechanically attached IB PVC flat roofing system.

Insulation used: 1/2″ fan-fold Styrofoam insulation with clear plastic / metal facing.

Total roof square footage: Approximately 500 sq. ft.

Standing seam metal roof in Wayland, MA.

Right after the roof in Westminster was installed, we started getting ready for a big metal roofing project, which used .032 Aluminum standing seam metal roof in 1 3/4″ snap lock profile with 16″ wide pan and stiffening ribs. This roof took about two weeks to install between tear-off of old asphalt shingles, siding removal, replacement of rotten wood replacement, delays with material shipments and wrong type of flashing being delivered.

Actually one of the delays happened because our supplier ran out of Grey aluminum coil after 80 % of roofing panels were rolled out of their mobile standing seam roll-forming machine, which was based in Manchester, NH. As the supplier received more aluminum coil 3 dais later the send a different truck, from New London, CT. As that truck arrived and rolled off the first test panel, just out of curiosity I decided to compare first batch to the second one. It turned out that the machine on the New London truck was set up to be 1/8″ wider than Manchester truck. This, over the course of 23 panels gave us an extra 3″ of panel which converted to two extra panels – 1 1/2″ wide – on either side of the rear roof section and exactly 23 panels on the front. We had to send the truck back and wait for the Manchester, NH truck to deliver and roll out the same coil. Even the guys working for the supplier were not aware if this mismatch between the two machines.

In the end the Manchester truck delivered the right-width panels and we were able to finish the jobs without any more delays. The homeowner – Glenn – was also very concerned with snow and ice falling off the roof and damaging the gutters bellow, so we installed a commercial-grade double rail snow retention system to eliminate the possibility of snow falls form the roof.

We already posted a full review of this roof installation on our blog, a few months back, so if you want to know more details, read the standing seam metal roof in Wayland, MA job profile.

Rubber roof in Boston, MA.

In August of 2009 we’ve completed a rather small, but very tricky and complicated flat roof installation in Boston, on one of the traditional Boston-style homes/buildings, which you can see all alogn Mass. ave, Comm. ave as well as Blue Hills avenue, on which this house is located. It was originally a EPDM rubber roof, which had over 50 percent of seams separated due to adhesive failure. The two-tower wood design made this roof much more difficult to repair and our client – Jim – chose to eliminate the hassles of frequent roof repairs and decided to have an 80-mil IB roof installed.

Although this should have been a pretty much straight-forward roof replacement, with rubber tear-off performed first and a new IB roof installed, I sensed that it will not be an easy job. Until we opened up the roof I could not say for sure what obstacles we’re going to face, but once we did remove the rubber, we found that entire length of the masonry parapet wall was damaged by water and poor quality of brick mortar. We also found that we would have to rebuild the parapet walls much as 4 layers of brick deep.

Because a chose a careful approach to the rubber removal, by only pulling back the rubber membrane off the parapet wall, and not cutting it, we were able to do entire brick repair work and roof preparation, while having the roof watertight each night with original rubber membrane.

Once all brick repair war was complete and mortar had sufficient time to cure, we installed a 2×8 pressure treated perimeter wood nailer to which IB wall flashing and drip edge would be attached. Only on the last day did we remove the whole rubber roof, installed new insulation and laid dawn the new, mechanically attached IB PVC flat roofing membrane.

We had to come back one more time to install the new gutter and downspouts, IB two-way membrane vents and 9″ IB attic vents over specially cut holes in the roof deck. These attic vents were installed to vent out the moisture that accumulated in the small attic space when the old rubber roof was leaking. Once in place these oversize vents will eventually dry out the attic and prevent any future mold growth.

Now Jim can enjoy his watertight roof and get sun baths sitting in his beach chair on the roof of his home, and not worry about damage to membrane – he chose a very durable, commercial grade 80-mil IB roof. He will also enjoy a cooler home, due to IB cool roofing features.

You can read the complete job profile about this Flat roof in Boston, MA on our Cool Roofing Blog.

Flat roof in Framingham, MA

One of the more recent roofs we’ve installed was in Framingham, MA, where we installed an IB roof on yet another shed dormer roof for Ed Kelly – a high-end remodeling contractor out of Northborough, MA. The builder had his crew remove old asphalt shingles off this roof an replace most of the old decking with new 3/4" plywood. We were there to install just the membrane and flash it 2 feet up the sloped roof.

During my conversation with Ed (builder), he told me me why he chose the seemingly more expensive IB roof over a cheaper rubber EPDM membrane. His main reason was the IB’s hot-air welded seams, and hassle free roof performance. Before, Ed would use a rubber roof on a few of his projects, end all but one of them leaked due to problems with seams, and required expensive rubber roof repair. Ed decided to end his flat roofing nightmares and constant rubber roof leaks, and went with IB roof.

The entire job took us one day to complete. The roof was ready to start, as we arrived to the job site in the morning, and before dark we packed our tools and were ready to leave, as the roof was all done. The roofing crew which did the tear off and deck replacement was putting the new asphalt shingles and aluminum fascia trim back on, as we were driving away.

Roofing material: 50 mil white IB roof, mechanically attached.

Insulation: 1/2″ fan-fold Styrofoam.

Total roof size: Approximately 450 sq. ft.

Flat roof deck in Wellesley, MA

Just before the Framingham flat roof job described above, we did another job for Ed – an 80 mil IB roof that would be a water-proofing membrane for a roof deck over a garage being built as an addition to an already huge home in a very secluded area of Wellesley.

Once again, a complete job profile for this roof deck is already on our blog, so there is no point to rewrite it here – read the Wellesley, MA  flat roof deck installation overview.

Solar flat roof in Medford, MA

This job, was actually sponsored by Cool Flat Roof (us) and IB Roof Systems, as it was a non-profit project, competing in the 2009 Solar Decathlon competition, sponsored by the US DOE. We installed an IB roof on a Boston solar home with some help from the project volunteers and Architecture students from BAC and Tufts.

Once again, we have a complete coverage of the installation of the IB flat roof and the Solar PV panels on this roof - Solar roof installation in Boston, MA.

Low slope shed dormer roof in Hingham, MA

Yet another shed dormer roof and also with major ice dams problems and leaks. This roof was just a year old when we removed the old asphalt shingled, and installed a new 50 mil IB traditions roof with asphalt shingles pattern printed onto IB white roofing membrane. This roof was completely covered with Ice & water shield which failed miserably and forced homeowner to climb up the slippery ladder all winter long, sometimes two times a day, to brake off the ace along the roof edge.

Homeowner – Paul – tried everything, from sodium-filled socks above the skylights to heating cables – nothing seemed to help, as with lack of proper ventilation and inherent limitations of asphalt shingles, his roof was still leaking, as it faced north, and sun never shined over it in the winter.

Paul wanted a permanent solution to stop roof leaks and not a single roofing contractor that Paul contacted could explain to him how they would stop the leaks or promise that their roof will work. Some even offered to  install asphalt shingles with Ice & Water shield – Really? Paul already had shingles with Ice and Water and it was not working.

Initially, Paul contacted us about getting a metal roof installed on his house, but after examining the roof, I suggested ti install IB roof instead, and residential flat roofing solution form IB  - Traditions Classic seemed to be the best option as it combined all the benefits of IB roof with the classic look of architectural asphalt shingles printed onto the membrane. After a little decision making, Paul and his wife chose to go with a seamless one piece IB roof. In this case there would be zero possibility of ice dam leaks.

All skylights now have seamless 1-piece plashing whelded to the roof, and the rodge vent is raise by an inch above the roof level to prevent wind driven water from penetrating the roof.

Now that Paul has a new IB Traditions roof, which is in effect a seamless, one piece blanket over entire roof, he and his wife won’t have to worry about roof leak and breaking ice off the roof any more.

With this, we conclude the first part of our Massachusetts job profiles list. We will update it as we have time to add more pictures and descriptions to each job, and will also add complete job profiles for each roof, when we have a chance.

Getting IB roof or a metal roof installed on your home in Massachusetts:

If your roof is leaking or you have Ice dams,and are tired of fighting with the ice, using heat cables, sodium-filled socks, raking your roof, and risking to fall of a ladder, you need to contact the low-slope roofing experts ( us ), request a free roofing price quote and schedule a roof inspection / estimate. You can also use our online roofing calculator to estimate your roof replacement cost and compare the roof prices of IB PVC membrane to Rubber roofing and Modified bitumen / Tar and gravel roofs.

Forewords: If you are a building inspector / official, please try to understand that this rant from contractors point of view… Or at least be objective and unbiased.

Pros and cons of building permits:

Why do we need building inspectors (and do we really need them)? Well, they are supposed to inspect – right? They are there to protect homeowners from shady contractors, and ensure that construction goes in accordance with state / national building codes. That’s why we also have specialty trade inspectors (electrical, plumbing, mechanical, etc). But do they really do their job? Another question – why do we need building permits? Yes, to pay the building inspector for doing his/her job – do the inspections. Yea, right!

I will purposely omit building inspectors in charge of large construction projects such as bridges, sky-scrapers, factories, etc. There is a lot more responsibility there and these inspectors are a lot more knowledgeable  than your average “Joe the building inspector”.

In my being a roofing contractor, I had to pull many permits in the last 6 years – for almost every job we did. In all this time, only once have I seen a building inspector at a job site, and he was there to harass the home-owner about the “illegal kitchen” that came with the house they just purchased. In the beginning of my construction life, I needed to get permits, but did not have sufficient / adequate insurance and in some cases did not have the Home Improvement Contractor registration in a state I was doing work. Luckily for me, I was able to get permits, and because I have dignity (I’d like to think so) I did decent work without code violations and nothing bad ever happened. I once had a “stop job” order posted at a job site, where we forgot to pull a permit. Ahh… the good old days.

When you get into serious contracting like the Metal Roofing and IB Roof installations, you can’t afford not to have proper insurances and licenses. Your clients by default expect everything to be current and you to be fully insured – both worker’s comp and general liability.  And besides, it is easier to show proof of insurance than to explain why you do not have it, or better yet to ask home owner to pull “owners permit”. It is also much easier to get a permit in 5 minutes instead of waiting 3 days and hoping that inspector is not a complete a$$ or is looking for a bribe – for some reason, I have a very strong suspicion that some building inspectors in Lynn, Revere, Malden and other surrounding towns in Massachusetts, purposely jerk contractors around, as if telling them – “give me $300 and you have your permit”. I really believe so. Or they just hate people in general. But let me get back to building inspectors.

My experience with building inspectors and permits:

I will try to be logical here, and present information in chronological order. Here is a work day of a building inspector as I see it:

In 85% of the times I walked into a building department of any city and town, building inspector is not there. Apparently they are out, doing inspections. But as I mentioned before, I had never seen and inspector on my job site, to inspect my roof. If inspector is in the office, he (I will use a “he” as all building inspectors I’ve met, were guys) will make you wait 2-5 minutes before asking you what you need. Apparently they need to feel as if they have power and are in control. After the initial coldness I did get permits, so there is nothing to complain about. But there is. And it is about how I got my permits and why do we actually need to pull them and pay for them. It is my honest belief that permits were instituted as means for towns to raise money, and biased on this assumption I’m more than happy to pay the fee. But any building inspector will tell you that permit is to pay for the inspection and enforcement on the building codes.

So I will tell you a few instances of how I got some of my permits, how horrendous the process can be for a contractor, and why so many contractors, including honest, illegal and shady ones, never pull permits. There is a provision in Mass. Building code that inspector has up to 30 days to issue the permit. We installed a Metal Roof on an IHOP restaurant in Hyannis, MA (down at the Cape Cod). When I vent to pull the permit (which was an hour drive one way) I almost got rejected, as my Worker’s Comp certificate was generic and not made out to Town of Barnstable. Fortunately, my insurance agent faxed in a copy 2 minutes before town hall closed.

As a side note, due to insurance fraud, in MA, your insurance agent cannot really give you an “all purpose” worker’s comp certificate, and the actual insurance company must print one out and mail it to you. This takes at least 3 days. Imagine a regular residential roofing company which installs a roof in one day and works 5 days a week. They have to get worker’s comp certificate for each roof, for every town they work in.

As my insurance certificate came out of fax machine, the office lady called over the building inspector to look at my paperwork (after being there for an hour and a half, he never looked a it). He asked me for HIC registration ONLY, although all commercial work required me having a CSL (construction supervisor license) and HIC implies that i do home improvement. When I offered the inspector my CSL, he said that he did not need it. Neither did he need my general liability insurance. Once he verified what he was looking for, he said: “You are all set – you can start in two weeks.” Why??? Why on earth do I have to wait two weeks??? I can loose a contract in two weeks. “Fortunately” half the roof on the restaurant was blown off by a storm wind, and it was more of an emergency roof work – this was the only reason he “allowed” us to start right away. So why do we need to wait two weeks I still don’t know. Time spent to get the permit – 4.5 hours.

Another time we did a roof in Grafton, MA. An IB low-slope roof on a residential home. Nothing fancy – a pretty straight forward roof. As I applied for the permit, I was told to firs fill out 7 different forms, pay three different departments for some ridiculous things (even the health department) and I also had to submit a SPEC for IB roof installation, including MSDS sheet (why?). They did not expect me to be back for a few days, but I was determined to either get a permit or permission to start work the same day as once again I drove pretty far to make sure every thing is ready for us to start when we planned to. I quickly ran to town library and printed about 20 pages of IB specifications describing exactly the parts of the roof we were going to do (I love IB online Quick Spec writer). When I brought back the whole package, the inspector was so surprised that he gave me an “ok” to start any time. Later, his secretary told me that he will actually read the spec. If I had know, I’d print out 200 pages, of exiting reading material.  Time spent to get the permit – 5 hours.

There are many other stories I can tell about pulling a building permit. I do want to say that not all inspectors are evil. One time we told a building inspector in Abington, MA that we did not have MA HIC – only the one from Rhode Island. He was cool enough to tell us: “get the homeowner to pull the permit”, which we did and all worked out well. I also absolutely love the Boston building department. The flow of contractors there is so heavy that they do not have time for stupid things like full spec for a small residential re-roof. They check your insurances and licenses, collect a fee and give you a permit.

Many towns in MA and CT will give you permission to start and mail you the permit. Some will make you run around as a squirrel. They will want 3 days before you can start a job. So I adopted and “evolved”.  Now I call the building department of any city or town where I’m going to work and tell them that I have a 3 hours drive to just get to their town, and if the could “please let me start the same day I apply for a permit”. This usually worked great. For example, when we installed an IB flat roof in Andover, CT – I never actually met the building inspector in person. I spoke to him on the phone – told him roof leaks and is covered with tarps (which was true) and we need to start ASAP. He gave an ok and all I had to do, was apply for the permit and provide proof of insurance and a construction license.

The second flat roof which we did in the Andover, CT – I still had to talk to him on the phone. This time he wasn’t as happy but since we already came to town, I “begged” him to let us start the job, without looking at it. Once again it was a complete tear-off and pretty straight forward, so he gave us a green light. But from now on, I have to apply for permit by mail and he wants to see my work. Next time I’m in Andover, I’ll give him a call ahead of time. Here you can see the pictures of our second roof in Andover, Connecticut and on of a roof in Westminster , MA: http://www.coolflatroof.com/flat-roofing-blog/low-slope-roofing-on-shed-dormers/

Why you should have a building permit for any construction work:

Bottom line – not all building inspectors are evil. Some are very nice, some are just bored and need things to do, and some need to feel powerful. All depends on your luck. I learned how to coexist with any building inspector, and no do everything in advance – even have my insurance agent fax over my certificates before I arrive at city hall.

Why did I write all this? Well – this is my blog and I can do it! Where else can I talk about it?

What is the point of all of this? I just had to get it out of my system after years of contractor – inspector interaction. Also my friend tried to pull a roofing permit for a VERY simple and straight forward roof – a measly 9 squares  on walkable gable roof in Malden, MA. And the inspector wants to inspect … maybe he had a bad day, but my buddy has to wait a few days until he can start. Really? So this was my inspiration.

Also, I want to make a point that many inspectors let shady contractors with fake certificates slide through or don’t even check for insurance and construction license, all-the-while they make other contractors chase their tails and waste time (and money) as if they have nothing to do. They also harass homeowners and issue stupid fines for stupid violations that should be grandfathered in. This creates situations where homeowners  and contractors knowingly do not pull permits. It also creates risk for homeowners to be left out if a shady contractor does bad job and screws them – without a permit they cannot use the Mass. Homeowner Protection Fund.

Can this be fixed? I don’t see a solution since there are too many hack inspectors and contractors out there and homeowners really need to do their due diligence – check references, call people, look at the jobs, licenses, insurance certificates, etc.

I encourage any homeowner to read my article on how to choose a roofing contractor. You should also know that it is pretty easy to “scam” the building permit process. For example, a roofing contractor must have a full roofing general liability insurance, which can easily cost $10,000+ per year, and worker’s come which runs at about 35-40% of payroll ($35-40 for every $100 you pay your guys). Many contractors will buy a siding insurance for $500-700 per year and use that certificate to pull permits.  The can also claim to be “sole proprietor” on the Worker’s Comp form when they apply for a permit and get away with not having the insurance at all – even if they have employees.

As for licenses – in Rhode Island there is no construction license at all – only a contractor registration. You can do everything with it, except for electrical, plumbing, etc. In Massachusetts, only recently have they implemented a mandatory requirement for CSL to perform roofing, siding and windows work. Before, any hack could get a roofing permit with just and HIC registration.

So once again, always do your due diligence when choosing a contractor.

As for the contractors – have your paperwork ready, do good work and, good luck guys!

PS. I’m not an angel and did not start my roofing business with $20,000 to buy all proper insurance. I did my share of getting around the permitting issue. Every one goes through it, but some remain in that stage forever. As for me – I prefer to do everything the right way or not do it at all.

It is October, and the cold weather is upon us. Now most homeowners who did not have a chance to replace their leaking roofs during spring and summer, want to get it done now – before he cold weather arrives. August, September and October are the busiest months of the year for a roofing contractor (for us at least) we get many calls and online estimate requests from homeowners looking to install a new IB Flat Roof or a Metal Roof on their home. At least 75 percent of these inquiries, mention that they would like to have a new roof installed before the winter.

While we do understand your concern about having a new roof before winter weather comes, I must point out a misconception among homeowners, assuming that a roof can only be installed during the warm months. While this is partially true, due to limitations of specific roof types (technologies), for us, installing our roof systems in the winter is the same as if it was summer – just a little colder.

Basically, it is the best time for homeowners to have their roof installed during winter, as you will get the best roof prices, as well as a choice of best roofing contractors, as work is limited and contractors compete for work and lower their prices to get the job. However, be aware that some roofs can’t or should not be installed in the winter – read bellow to find out what you should know about winter roofing and which roofing materials should not be installed in the cold weather.

Which roofs can be installed in the winter and which can’t:

As mentioned before, there are certain types of roofing systems that should not be installed in the winter, and also those that can, without any compromises in quality. Let’s look at them, but first I will divided them into two logical groups - flat roofs and sloped roofs. Also lets establish that by “winter” I mean temperatures bellow 40 degrees F.

Flat Roofs:

When it comes to flat roofing, there are virtually only two systems that can be safely installed in the winter – PVC and TPO. These two are thermoplastic single ply flat roofing products which are installed using the Hot Air Welded seams instead of various types of adhesives.

In the winter, glues and adhesives will freeze, which will distort it chemical composition in one way or another, which can and will cause premature failure. This is why most, if not all liquid roofing products (be it adhesives, or liquid-applied roofs such as acrylic or urethane coatings)  should not even be stored under 40 degree F temperatures – never mind being installed in cold weather.

PVC and TPO on the other hand are attached to the deck using mechanical assembly with heavy duty screws and plates, and all seams are sealed using Hot Air welding equipment which usually operates at 800-1100 degrees F. Such high temperatures ensure that even during cold winter months, all seam welds will not be affected by the outside temperature. I do have to mention though that PVC and TPO roofs are not equal or identical. They are only similar in how they look and installed. Besides that, PVC and TPO roofs are very much different and cannot be compared directly. I encourage you to read our PVC vs. TPO roof comparison.

Following flat roof systems should not (cannot) be installed in the winter:

- Rubber Roofs (EPDM)

- Modified Bitumen (cold applied or torch applied)

- Any type of Peal-n-Stick flat roofing products, such as GAF Liberty or similar.

The three roof types listed above represent some of the most common roofing systems available on the market today, with the exception of PVC and TPO single ply membrane flat roofs. The PVC and TPO did not not make the list above since the can easily be installed in the winter without and spec violations, or quality reductions. As for the rest of these systems, they are installed using adhesives (except torch applied Mod. Bit. roof) and therefore installing them in the winter will result in leaks and potential roof blow-off.

In example of Rubber roofs, entire system is usually installed with several different adhesives (one to glue rubber to the insulation, on for seams, special seam primers and cleaners, etc.) and EVERY rubber roof manufacturer explicitly points out that their roof should not be installed in temps bellow 40 degrees. I encourage you to read the following heated discussion on Roofing.com forums about flat roofing in frigid north where many contractors, including some from New England, will insist that Rubber can be installed in the winter, by pre-warming the glue and working when the sun is out, so it would warm up the black rubber membrane, for better adhesion. I also was talking to on of the sales reps for a big rubber roof “private label” distributor, who was telling me that winter months installation should be times perfectly – all glue applied between 10 am and 2 pm, only when the sun is out, and then the seams can be done between 2 and 5 pm, provided that all glues and primers are kept warm.  My take on it is following: Rubber roof manufacturers clearly state that such roofs should not be installed in less then 40 degree temperatures. Reps will encourage their contractors to install in the winter, because the make a sales commission and contractors will install because they need to stay busy, all the while violating installation specs. The only one at a disadvantage is you – the roof owner and here is why.

Because rubber roof installers have to go through so many additional hustles to install rubber in the winter, while they still have to charge their normal rates or even less, because competition is fierce and there is not enough work to go around, they will have to cut SO many corners to stay a bit profitable. Therefore, what you get is a roof that was installed outside of manufacturers specifications, frustrated roofers installing it, and and potentially frozen adhesives and glue which will most likely result in roof leaks, and warranty claims would likely be denied. Despite the fact that PVC is far superior to the above roof types, if you still choose to have a rubber roof installed (for financial reasons for example), do not do it in the winter.

Peal and Stick roofing systems and underlayment should not be installed in the winter for obvious reasons – they will not properly stick to the roof deck or base ply, making leaks or even blow-off almost certain. Such roofs should ONLY be installed during warmer months of the year.

Sloped Roofs:

When it comes to sloped roofs, the choices are many and very few at the same time. Basically you have asphalt shingles, metal roofing, and other very rare types of roofing material which usually cost at least as much as metal roofs or more. These are Slate roofs, Tile roofs, Synthetic slate, Cedar shingle or shakes and that is about it. Since asphalt shingle is the most used typo of roofing material (merely because it is the very cheapest roof you can find) rivaled by metal roofs on the premium side, I will only consider these two types for the comparison.

Asphalt shingles can be installed in the winter, but extreme care must be taken by roofers installing it, not to bend and crack the shingle as well as not to trap moisture under the shingles. Because of the reality of winter roofing, very often both of the above are ignored by roofers, causing premature roof failures. Also, because asphalt shingle roofs are highly dependent on the proper seal between the overlapping shingles, which requires the solar heat to melt the seal strip, such roofs installed in the winter, often do not seal properly until warm weather rolls around, causing them top leak, and as a result, wood rot often develops under a brand new roof.

Another major limitation of asphalt shingles is its weakness against Ice Dams. Ice and Water (I&W) shield is the most commonly used method to prevent ice dam leaks. First of all I&W fails about 25 percent the time, and because it  also requires sun’s heat to properly adhere to the roof deck, in the winter, moisture develops between roof sheeting and underside of ice & water underlayment potentially making it useless.

Metal Roofs on the other hand can easily be installed in the winter without any compromises in quality of installation. First of all, with metal roof it is actually absolutely not necessary, as metal roof sheds water and ice, minimizing ice build up on the roof. Also the interlocking design prevents water from traveling upward. All this renders the ice & water shield useless. At the same time it prevents the proper breathing (ventilation) of the roof deck which shortens its service life. And ultimate goal is that the roof deck lasts as long as the metal roof over it, which in the case of aluminum shingles is a very long time. Therefore, unless you or the building inspector want Ice & Water to be there, I think it is best not to put it on. We use a premium breathable synthetic underlayment – GAF DeckShiled which makes the roof watertight even without a metal roof over it, and helps the wood “breath”.

Cold weather also does not affect metal roofs as they won’t crack due to “improper handling” and metal roofs are designed to allow for expansion and contraction, so the outside temperatures won’t make a difference.

As you can see, IB PVC roofs and Metal roofing systems are the best system to have installed, year round!

If you are looking to replace your flat or sloped roof, we invite you to look at jobs we’ve done around New England. You can also fill out our Roof Estimate request form to get a free price quote for replacing your roof, or use our interactive roofing price calculator to estimate the cost of your new roof.

- Massachusetts Roofing

- Connecticut Roofing

We constantly update these pages, adding jobs we’ve done recently and those that were done some time ago. It is a slow process as we try to describe each job in as many details, and point out certain common roofing problems and how we overcome them. Soon we will add roofs that we have completed in Rhode Island and New Hampshire, as well as more MA and CT roofing jobs.

Some Massachusetts and Connecticut roofs we’ve installed in the winter:

Flat roof in Lowell, MA – one of the most recent roofs, installed in the beginning of Dec. 2009. Here we removed old epdm rubber roof, which shrunk and pulled away from the walls and roof edges. We replaced this roof with new IB PVC flat roofing membrane, and added 4″ of ISO insulation to improve weather-tightness and energy efficiency of this home.

Flat roof in Andover, CT – this roof was installed in January 2009, right in the middle of brutal cold storm which overtook New England for almost two weeks, and temperatures reached as low as -16 degrees F. There, the homeowner, with help of his buddies, removed the old roof, and fixed the roof deck, and covered the roof with a tarp. We had to quickly come in and install a new 50-mil IB roof, right before another snow storm hit.

Metal Roof in Brighton, MA – an new aluminum shingles metal roof was installed on a roof of a very busy IHOP restaurant, while it was open for business. This large roofing project involved complete removal and replacement of old metal shingles, all plywood decking, which was mostly rotted, replacement of some rafters and installation for new GAF Deck Armor underlayment and a new metal roof. Due to many major snow storms during that winter, this project took almost two month to complete. About same time 2 years ago we also installed another metal roof on an IHOP restaurant in Hyannis, Massachusetts.

Recently we finished installing an aluminum standing seam metal on a residential home in Wayland, Massachusetts. The roof is made of .032 Aluminum, coated with grey finish Kynar 500 coating. It is a 1.5″ snap-lock standing seam, attached with stainless steel clips and wood screws. Also, as you can see, there is a rail snow retention system which I will describe in detail bellow. It consists of cast-aluminum mounts attached to ribs of the standing seams roof and two rows stainless steel cross bars (rails) to hold snow and ice from sliding off the roof.

Originally, the homeowner was having bad problems with Ice dams and roof leaks. Originally roof had “ice belt” made of copper, but it only covered the bottom 2 feet of the roof and as we discovered later, during a roof tear-off, it was tucked under the shingles above it by only 2-3 inches. Needles to say, this copper ice-belt did not work as it was intended to and the ice dams were still creating leaks. After a while, to solve the Ice Dams, home owner installed large sheets of aluminum.

These were new and improved ice belt sheets, and Ice dams were no longer as bad of a problem. But now, after each winter storm, snow would accumulate on the roof, and as the heat from the attic (which was the original cause of Ice dams) heated and melded snow, which then re-froze, large pieces of Ice and Snow would avalanche off the roof, taking down the gutters with them. This was also a serious safety hazard for people living in the house and those visiting it in the winter. Home owner – Glenn – attempted to solve this problem by attaching improvised snow guards to the sheets of aluminum, but those came down after the next snow storm, together with Ice and Snow that accumulated on the roof.

After a few winters of cleaning snow off the roof, after each snow storm and fixing gutters after each winter season, Glenn was ready for a new roof. He was looking for a permanent, maintenance free roof that would be water tight, would not be affected by ice dams and a snow retention system that would prevent all the ice and snow from sliding off the upper portion of this gambler roof, and taking down the gutter system with it.

The roof:

As mentioned before, the new roof had to be maintenance free, resistance to ice dams, last a  very long time and to prevent snow and ice from falling off. Basically, functionality was the main concern for Glenn, yet a good curb appeal was also important. A standing seam metal roofing system system with energy efficient Cool Roof coating was chosen. Standing seam has no horizontal seams, thus a there would be no water back ups (which are a common problem related to ice dams on asphalt shingle roofs), and would would just run off the roof panels.

Stifening ribs were added to roof panels for additional rigidity and to minimize oil-canning that is common to to long standing seam panels.

Obstacles and challenges:

Although the roof is considered walkable and may seem easy from at first, there were numerous challenges we had to overcome during the installation and it is best to foresee these challenge beforehand, so they don’t pop-up unexpectedly during, and cause installation delays, and possible change orders (those unexpected charges that many contractors bring to the homeowner in the middle of the job). Despite predicting most of those obstacles during the initial roof inspection, I still missed a few minor things, which we took care of without having to have the uncomfortable “change order” conversation.

Main thing that came up during initial roof inspection was the fact that we could not install properly install roof to wall flashing around dormers, unless we pulled off the aluminum siding. At the same time we could not pull off the siding without damaging it, therefore it was decided to install new vinyl siding instead of old aluminum.

Another challenge would be the actual roof-to-wall flashing around dormers. Because of very steep slope on the lower part of the gambler roof, the angle bottom angle of roof to wall flashing was almost 140 degrees, and because of added height of 1.5″ ribs, these flashings would take a very long time to be done.

Installation of standing seam metal roof:

While we were waiting for the metal roof panels to be produced by our supplier, we had to remove old roofing shingles down to the deck. Installing a standing seam metal roof over asphalt shingles is just wrong, although some roofing contractors up in NH, ME and VT do it all the time and with steel panel too. Problem with doing that is such that shingles will punch horizontal lines in the metal roof panels, making it look ver unattractive. Second, and more serious problem is that granules in the asphalts shingles will rub against the underside of the metal panel, eventually scratching off the galvanic coating and causing the metal to rust in  multiple places. This would not be a problem for aluminum standing seam panels, but roofer that would install standing seam over shingles just don’t use aluminum as it is considerably more expensive for them and extra inventory would just sit unneeded.

Additionally, after removing the old roof down to the deck, we were able to replace any rotten wood that would otherwise be covered over with a lifetime metal roof.

Once the old asphalt shingles were removed and all rotten rood replaced, it was time for the underlayment. Underlayment is an essential part of a metal roof and also it will protect the roof, until metal roofng panels are installed. Because those are not always available to you right away – as was the case for us and we had to wait 2 weeks for panels to be made – the underlayment must keep the roof completely watertight until the metal roof installation is complete.

Because of such high requirements for the underlayment, we use exclusively and religiously the only underlayment that we find to work for us – GAF DeckArmor. It is a breathable synthetic underlayment ate is very strong, slip resistant, light-weight and make working with it a pleasure (unlike tar paper and other synthetic underlayments). Also, a very important factor for us is the breath-ability. It allows the moisture trapped between roof deck and underlayment to pass through and to run off the upper site of Deck-Armor, instead of creating rot and mold in the attic. This extends the life of wooden roof deck considerably, and is an integral component of the metal roofs we install.

Once all the prep war is done, the actual roof installation goes somewhat fast. There is a common confusion that I find among people contacting us about a metal roof. For some reason, most people thing standing seam roof is easy to install. This is actually very far from being true. Unless the roof is a straight run without any penetrations or obstacles, the standing seam roof take the longest to install with considerable waste if there are valleys and hips involved.

Because any penetration or flashing requires cutting the panel and using a z-bar, details take double the time that it would take if we were installing and aluminum metal shingles roof. Also, unless roof is relatively low pitch (3 or 4) it is nearly impossible to walk on panels and putting up staging such as roof jacks is out of the question. Fortunately this roof was low slope at the top, and bottom we were able to install off ladders – just like siding.

As I mentioned in the beginning, that falling snow and ice was on of the main issues we had to address and we had to get a heavy-duty snow retention system – the E-Rail for Berger Roofing Accessories.

Once the snow guards were in place, we could finish installing the chimney flashing, remove the fall protection systems and install ridge caps. Roof installation was complete and now the Ice Dams, rain and falling snow are not a problem any more for this residential home in the beautiful Wayland, Massachusetts.

If you need a metal or low slope roof installed anywhere in Massachusetts, Rhode Island or Connecticut, feel free to call us – 888-635-2876 or fill out the free roofing quote online form, to get schedule a roof inspection and estimate.

You can also use our interactive roofing calculator to estimate the cost of aluminum shingles ar standing seam metal roofing and compare it to asphalt shingles, cedar shakes, slate and tile roofs.

It is no secret that a metal roof, although designed to last a lifetime, is only as good as its installers. Additionally, metal roofing is a completely different animal than asphalt shingle roofs, cedar shake or even slate roofing, and to be able to install a metal roof correctly, you need a professionally trained metal roof mechanic.

Usually when a metal roof is installed by a seasoned roofer, who never worked with at least on of many types of metal roofing, the results are more than sad. Roof begins to leak with the first rain, roofers reputation suffers and very unhappy customer seeks to resolve the problems with the manufacturer and files complains with BBB, Angie’s List and other consumer protection organizations. Fortunately all of these of these troubles can be avoided if a professional metal roofing is hired to do the job.

We understand the needs of home and business owners, and their demand for highest quality of materials and installation. We hand pick the best materials and the most thoroughly thought-out roofing systems, and combine them with our unique installation methods, which in the end, provide you with a true lifetime roofing solution, and unmatched beauty for your home.

Examples of our unique approach to installation of metal roofing:

In the above video clip, you may see how we approach the installation of this residential metal roof in Revere, MA. As with most roofs, attic ventilation is crucial to the longevity of the roof, its wooden substrate and the health of the entire home, including its occupants. There are multiple ways to ventilate the attic space, but the most effective way is to utilize a ridge and soffit ventilation system, where the cold air enters the attic through the soffit vents, located along the eaves of the roof and escapes through the ridge vent. However, the ridge vent is often the path through which the wind driven water can penetrate the roof, causing slow, but devastating damages to the roof’s framing. Since amount of water coming through the ridge vent is usually insignificant, homeowners will not notice the leak for many years, at which point damage has already been done, and repairs can cost thousands of dollars. It is very common that the wooden substrate is completely rotten along the ridge line, and so are the tips of the rafters merging at the peak of the roof.

The solution to ridge vent leaks:

Water-tight ridge vent system

We designed a special way to raise the ridge vent off the roof level by 3/4 of an inch. While insignificant in therms of aesthetics, this bump-out prevents the wind drive water to enter the ridge vent cut-out, while the ventilation still works just as efficiently as it would have otherwise. Notice that the custom flashing we use, rests on top of a pressure treated 1×4 board. The flashing is inserted into the top lock of the last course of aluminum shingles, which makes it impossible for wind driven water to penetrate the roof. Just as an extra protection measure, we used  commercial grade exterior caulking, at the joins of top locks between every shingle.